WINNING WAYS: Ventura County’s Entrepreneur Academy is...

WINNING WAYS: Ventura County’s Entrepreneur Academy is one of 14 California projects chosen among semifinalists for Innovations in American Government Awards. . . . One hundred programs across the nation are vying for the honor, bestowed annually by the Ford Foundation and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Fifteen programs, to be announced in the fall, will receive $100,000 grants, and another 15 will get $20,000 each. . . . Stay tuned.

FORE SCORE: With golf courses in Ventura County sprouting like mushrooms , the developer of an upscale housing project in Moorpark has snagged a course architect he hopes will propel his two planned links to the fore. . . . Award-winning golf course architect Robert E. Cupp will draw up plans for the 18-hole courses for Bollinger Development Inc. as part of a project that will include 216 houses that will sell for upward of $900,000. . . . Company President Paul Bollinger hopes the courses will host tournament-quality events. . . . Said Bollinger of Cupp: “This guy just has the knack.”

READ ‘EM AND WEEP: Take a good look. . . . It’s probably the last time you’ll see a Bank of A. Levy sign. For the first time in 113 years, Ventura County is without a branch of the venerable financial institution, founded in 1882 by agriculture mogul Achille Levy. Starting today, branches of what used to be the county’s largest independent bank will officially become First Interstate Bank offices. (B1)

WOLF’S HOWL: Mixing a chat-show format with Mexican top-40 tunes, Spanish-language radio station KOXR, also known as Radio Lobo, is making a bid for listeners among Ventura County’s Latino population (B1). . . . Under new ownership, the station is spicing up its issues-oriented talk shows with listener call-ins--and peppering the blend with the station’s signature: a comical wolf’s howl. . . . Says longtime KOXR deejay Marco Antonio del Castillo: “With the new owner, we’re rising again.”